West is falling behind China on supercomputer technology, warns boss of $10bn tech giant

The West is falling behind China in developing quantum supercomputers that have the potential to infiltrate security systems and develop new materials, the head of one of the industry’s leading companies has said.

Rajeeb Hazra, the chief executive of the Anglo-American tech company Quantinuum, warned that China was outspending Western countries two to one on quantum computing.

“I do remain concerned that for those countries that are underestimating it, they will fall behind,” Mr Hazra said, who added that China was already using the powerful technology to generate results.

Quantum computing involves deploying the peculiar mechanics of quantum physics to develop computers that are significantly more powerful than today’s most advanced, classical supercomputers. The technology has been an academic pursuit for decades, although it has recently led to increased national security concerns because of its potential to infiltrate encryption systems used to protect sensitive data.

Britain and other countries have already cracked down on the export of technologies related to quantum computing amid growing fears that China will gain an advantage, while Beijing is throwing billions in public funds at developing the technology.

“What is a little worrisome is not everybody has that same view of underestimation,” Mr Hazra said.

“There are nation states that are saying ‘this is the way to go in the future’ and there are some that are ignoring it or underestimating it, to the point that there is a disparity of investments across nation states. 

“When you put a geopolitical kind of covering on that, there is a real chance of this underestimation hurting national security and even industrial security.